Sheriff Kelly Rowe announced at a Friday, Aug. 23, news conference that Lubbock County sheriff’s investigators are taking over Maegan Hembree’s disappearance case.

“My conversation with the (Hockley County) sheriff this week was first and foremost an offer to assist,” Rowe said. “They feel like — their consensus over there is that anything that did occur, occurred in Lubbock County. We’ve got the resources and we’ve already been working with them on some of the details.”

The Sheriff’s Office named a person of interest in the disappearance of the 30-year-old Smyer woman on Thursday, Aug. 22. Michael Todd Ramsey, 48, of Mesquite has been incarcerated at the Lubbock County Detention Center since June 20 on charges unrelated to the Hembree case, but authorities believe he has information about the case.

If Ramsey has information, he isn’t sharing it with investigators.

“We have since tried to get him to cooperate and at this point he’s not wishing to do so,” Rowe said. “If he has information with regards to Miss Hembree and he has no involvement in, it then I would encourage him to step forward and cooperate.”

Rowe said investigators believe Hembree and Ramsey knew each other, but he wouldn’t comment on the exact nature of their relationship.

Hembree was last seen Feb. 26 in her red two-door Saturn car when she left Smyer for a friend’s house in Lubbock. She was reported missing when she didn’t arrive.

Rowe confirmed investigators have found Hembree’s car, but he said the location and other details surrounding the find would not be made public.

Investigators are still trying to create a complete picture about what happened in Hembree’s life prior to her disappearance.

“We want to try to isolate some of those details and find out a more full, a more complete picture,” Rowe said. “We are looking to follow up on some things and potentially see if we can locate this young woman and bring this case to a close.”

Anyone with information regarding either Hembree or Ramsey is encouraged to contact the Sheriff’s Office at 775-1406 or Crime Line at 741-1000.